Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study examined the relationship between the timing of maternal education and children's educational attainment and the extent to which this relationship differs by gender. I used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the Child and Youth Survey to determine the timing of mothers' education relative to the birth of their children, with additional predictors associated with children's educational attainment included in quantitative analyses. ANOVA analyses identified statistically significant differences in educational attainment among the children grouped by mother-category, based on the timing of their mothers' education, and between genders. Regression analyses found no statistical difference between children whose mothers earned bachelor's degrees before birth and those whose mothers were in college while mothering, but a large gap in attainment for children whose mothers did not attend college. Significant predictors, especially children's grades, educational expectations, type of high school, and socioeconomic status, were found to predict children's attainment. The findings inform a discussion about the extent to which a mother's return to postsecondary education serves as a force for social mobility for her children and the extent to which the timing of maternal education facilitates social reproduction of education.

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using the 1980- 2008 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), this dissertation examines how parenthood exacerbates gender wage inequality within married, heterosexual households and across families stratified by race and social class. The majority of research on motherhood penalties and fatherhood premiums investigates how individual men and women's earnings change after the arrival of children, yet it is unclear how parental bonuses and penalties accrue within coupled households. Although studies investigating child effects on individuals' wages draw on theoretical explanations that rely on the joint decision-making of couples, empirical analysis rarely situates the effects of children on earnings within couples. This dissertation reveals that wage inequality associated with parenthood not only amplifies the gender wage gap, but also contributes to wage inequality among couples, net of couples' work effort, educational attainment, income level, and racial/ethnic group membership. Importantly, the degree to which parenthood exacerbates gender wage inequality within the household varies by educational attainment, work hours, and racial/ethnic group of coupled partners.

Bibliography Citation

Hodges, Melissa J. Bringing the Household Back in: Family Wage Gaps and the Intersection of Gender, Race, and Class in the Household Context. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, 2015..